If you rarely have the time to commit to a 20- or 30-minute workout, then slipping shorter sessions into your weekly routine can be an effective way to train instead.
Armed with the right workout you can achieve a lot in under 10 minutes, especially when it comes to building strength in your core.
This eight-move abs workout from Pilates instructor Lilly Sabri targets the deep core muscles as well as the abs and obliques, all in just eight minutes.
You don’t even need any equipment to do the workout, aside from one of the best yoga mats to perform the exercises on.
Watch Lilly Sabri’s 8-minute abs workout
The workout follows a simple format where you work for 45 seconds and then rest for 15 seconds with each exercise.
Each of the eight moves in the workout is done lying down, so you don’t have to change your position much during the rest breaks and can actually give your core a break.
That’s going to be necessary, because your abs will be burning after just a couple of moves. You do a variety of moves to target the lower abs through leg raises and upper abs through crunches. All of them will exhaust the target muscles in 45 seconds.
Sabri does the workout with you and provides tips on form throughout, and you can see what move is coming up in the top left corner of the screen during the rest breaks.
One thing I like about Pilates workouts is the focus on your breathing, which helps you to move slowly and with control during each exercise, and maximize the time under tension for the target core muscles.
Sabri also encourages a focus on form throughout the session, with useful tips that help you imprint your lower back into the mat. This protects the lower back while also making sure you engage the right muscles with each move.
If you do short workouts like this two or three times a week while also eating and living healthily in general, you’ll quickly see an improvement in your core strength and definition.
For more rounded fitness gains it’s worth also doing some full-body workouts as well, and you could add this core session onto the end of them as an abs-focused finisher.
If you have dumbbells to hand then this 30-minute dumbbell workout will strengthen your whole body, and if you don’t have any kit then try this 15-minute full-body workout that just uses bodyweight exercises.